


The Red Apple of Fate

by Calicolor



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Comedy, Cute, Fluff, Games, Karasuno ships it, M/M, The volleyball club ships these two I swear, realizing feelings for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-27 21:19:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8417098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calicolor/pseuds/Calicolor
Summary: The volleyball club convinces the weirdo duo to play the apple stem game, where they have to recite the alphabet until the stem breaks off. The letter that each of them stops on should be the first letter of their respective soul mates' names. It's only a game, and the results definitely shouldn't be taken to heart...right?





	

Hinata was sitting in the classroom eating lunch with his fellow volleyball teammates. A few of them had snuck into the first-years’ classroom so they could all eat together. The group included Hinata, Kageyama, Nishinoya, Tanaka, Asahi, Suga, and Tsukishima, who had been dragged there against his will. They had pushed a couple of desks together to make a sort of table in the middle of them. Currently, Nishinoya and Tanaka were discussing their latest plan to woo Kiyoko while Kageyama and Tsukishima were in the middle of another petty argument.

“A tomato isn’t a fruit!” Kageyama yelled, throwing his hands down onto the desk. The other students in the room turned around to stare at him.

“Yes, it is,” Tsukishima said, calm as ever.

“So you’re trying to tell me that I’m somehow wrong about something I learned as a child?”

“Well, you’re an idiot, so you have an excuse. It’s not your fault…Bakageyama.”

Kageyama had to be restrained by Asahi and Suga as he lunged toward the blonde, who was laughing behind his hand.

“Let me go, guys! Let me at him!”

“I-I’m sorry, but we can’t do that,” Asahi said, a terrified look on his face.

“You know,” Suga began, grip tightening on Kageyama’s shoulder. He had an eerie smile on his face. “If Daichi was here, I’m sure he’d punish you himself if he saw you two fighting. You know I think I might just _accidentally_ call him over now.”

Suga flashed his cell phone out, threateningly. Kageyama immediately stopped flailing. He slumped back against his chair with his head down.

“S-Sorry,” he muttered.

“Hm? What was that, ‘King of the Court’?” Tsukishima teased.

“S-Shut up! You started it!”

“Oh? Did I? All I did was mention a fact I knew. I didn’t _mean_ any _harm_.”

“Tch. Whatever, bastard…”

Hinata stopped sipping from his juice box.

“Actually, you _were_ the one who started it, Kageyama.”

“Huh!? How?”

“Well, Tsukishima did mention that the tomato is a fruit. But then you decided to make a fight out of it because you didn’t believe him.”

Kageyama was speechless. Tsukishima grinned smugly next to him.

“Well, did _you_ know that tomatoes are fruits?” Kageyama demanded.

“Yes,” Hinata stated, matter-of-factly.

Everyone around the table froze and stared at the fluff of orange hair. Faces of disbelief and surprise surrounded the spiker.

“W-What!? Is that such a shock to all of you?”

Kageyama pointed his finger across the table at him.

“How does someone who gets F’s on everything know some useless fact like that!?”

Hinata jumped up from his seat.

“Your grades are worse than mine, Bakageyama!”

“Useless?” Tsukishima mumbled, pushing up his glasses.

This stupid quarrel went on for a bit until they were each pulled back down into their respective chairs and told to shut up. Normal conversation followed as they all continued to eat their lunch. As Hinata picked up his apple, Nishinoya quickly leaned toward him.

“Hey, Hinata! Do the apple stem game!”

Hinata cocked his head sideways, confusion on his face.

“Apple stem game? What’s that?”

“It’s where you say the alphabet as you twist the stem. When it breaks off, whatever letter you stop on is the first letter of your soul mate’s name.”

“Uwoooooaaaaahhhh! Really!?”

Hinata looked at him with wide, twinkling eyes.

“Well,” Suga joined in. “It’s only a game. It’s not really accurate.”

“But it’s fun,” Nishinoya said. “You should try it, Hinata.”

“Well…okay then.”

He held the stem between his fingers and started twisting the apple in short increments.

“A…B…C…”

Eventually, the stem broke off.

“Oh! It stopped on K,” Nishinoya announced. “Who do we know that has a name starting with K?”

“Well, it can’t be me, now can it?” Suga laughed.

“Don’t even think about it,” Tsukishima said, bluntly.

The distant sounds of crying in the hallway were coming from Tanaka, who had run out of the room at the mention of the letter K.

_“Kiyokooooo! Not Kiyoko!”_

“Well,” Asahi said. “All that leaves is…”

Everyone slowly turned their heads to look at Kageyama. He looked around at their curious faces as he sipped his milk, absentmindedly.

“What?”

A moment passed by in silence. Kageyama’s eyes scanned over each individual face of his teammate. He bit down on his straw when his gaze stopped on Hinata’s face, which was scrunched up in embarrassment. As if the cogs had started turning in his head, a light blush broke out across his face.

“Wha—me—huh—of course not—that’s just—” Kageyama stumbled over his words, sounding very incomprehensible to the rest of them.

Nishinoya grinned and threw a fist up into the air.

“Of course! It has to be Kageyama! I mean, who else could it be?”

The faint cries of _“KIYOKO!”_ could still be heard from out in the hallway. Nishinoya continued on, nevertheless.

“Out of everyone we know with names starting with K, Kageyama is the person Hinata is closest to! It must be fate!”

Kageyama wasn’t the only one whose face was dyed as red as the tomato he’d been debating earlier. Hinata had sunk down as far as he could in his seat without actually being on the floor. If anyone looked closely enough, they would probably be able to actually see the steam erupting from his ears.

Suga and Asahi leaned back in their chairs, smiling and clapping happily.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Tsukishima quietly commented.

Hinata regained what little life he had left in him and shot back up in his seat. He faced all of them with a determined demeanor.

“M-Maybe the game was wrong. I mean, this was my first time playing it after all. Let me try again!”

Everyone besides the two in question looked around at one another, exchanging silent words. Then, they all nodded in agreement.

“Sure, Hinata. You can try again,” Nishinoya said.

“Here,” Asahi held out his own apple. “You can use mine this time.”

Hinata took the apple in his hands, graciously. Kageyama had somewhat calmed down across from him. His usual dull expression was plastered on his face, however with a tinge of pink still evident on his cheeks.

“Oh wait, rules!” Nishinoya interrupted Hinata just as he was about to start turning the apple.

Hinata looked at him. “Rules?”

Nishinoya nodded ecstatically. “This time, you have to go _backwards_ in the alphabet. That way you won’t get the same letter twice.”

“Alrighty. Here I go then.”

He started turning the apple, in slightly longer turns this time.

“Z…Y…X…”

The stem broke off.

“…T…”

The whole table stared at him with wide eyes. Hinata felt tense as well. What were they going to say now? Suddenly, Suga, Asahi, and Nishinoya threw their hands out on the table. In unison, they exclaimed:

“TOBIO! T FOR TOBIO!!!!”

They danced around noisily in their seats, high-fiving each other and whooping. Tanaka had snuck back into the room at some point and was joining in on the celebration as well. Though he was probably happy mostly because that meant Hinata’s soul mate wasn’t Kiyoko.

Kageyama and Hinata had resumed their activity of sinking as far down as they possibly could into their seats, faces aflame.

When the table had calmed down once again, Hinata spoke up.

“I-Th-That can’t be right! That could just be a coincidence!”

Tanaka put a finger to his chin and closed his eyes, as if deep in thought. He hummed.

“Hmm…well there’s only one way to find out for sure.”

Nishinoya leaned forward with curiosity gleaming in his eyes.

“Oooooh. What are you thinking, Tanaka?”

“The only way to prove it—” Tanaka opened his eyes and threw a finger out to point at Kageyama. “—is by having you play the game, too!”

Kageyama pursed his lips.

“How will that prove anything?”

“Because if you get Hinata’s initials, then it has to be destiny! Gra ha ha ha!”

Kageyama rolled his eyes.

“Fine. Whatever.”

Suga offered him his apple. Kageyama snatched it away, gruffly. He turned the apple several times until the stem broke off.

“…H…”

“Ooooooooh—” the table started to cheer, excluding Hinata and Tsukishima.

“Shut up!” Kageyama interrupted. “H could mean anyone. Give me another apple so I can get the other initial over with.”

Another apple was handed to him and he vigorously turned it. Like Hinata had done, he recited the alphabet backwards this time. This stem was more stubborn than the others, taking several turns to break off.

“…S…”

Kageyama had barely finished voicing the letter when the table erupted into cheers, earning many shushes from the remaining few students in the classroom. Many of them had left due to the loud table of volleyball players.

“HE GOT S! S AND H FOR SHOYO HINATA!"

Tsukishima leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, sighing loudly. Hinata and Kageyama weren’t even in their chairs anymore. They were quite literally on the floor and covering their burning faces with their hands. The volleyball club would probably never let them live this down.

* * *

After classes had ended for the day, Hinata found himself lingering around the lockers outside of his classroom. All the other students had gone downstairs to go home for the weekend, leaving the hallway quiet and deserted.

The game with the apple they had played at lunch…it was still bothering him. He had gotten T and K. Of all the letters in the alphabet, he had gotten Tobio Kageyama’s initials? Kageyama had gotten his own initials, S and H. Could the game had been right? Was it trying to tell him something? He shook his head at the thought. No. It was just a dumb game. The results didn’t mean anything. He could play it over and over and get different letters every time. It wasn’t accurate…right?

“Hey.”

A sudden voice made him jump about six feet in the air, literally. He turned around to see none other than Kageyama.

“Oh! Uh, hey, Kageyama! What’s up?”

Kageyama cocked his head to the side.

“Eh? What do you mean ‘what’s up’? We’re supposed to walk home together. Classes are over. Let’s go.”

He started to walk away but stopped when he realized Hinata wasn’t following. He turned back around to observe the orange-haired spiker.

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

Hinata didn’t say anything. He just stood there, staring at the lockers. Kageyama waited. Eventually, Hinata opened his mouth to speak, continuing to stare straight ahead.

“Hey, Kageyama. That game we played at lunch…with the apple…does it really work?”

“Huh? _That’s_ what’s bothering you?”

Hinata finally looked over at him.

“Well, does it?”

“Oh, give me a break. That was just a stupid game. It doesn’t mean anything. We’d get different letters if we played it tomorrow anyway.”

Hinata felt relief at his statement. But he also felt something else mixed in there. It felt like…disappointment?

Kageyama continued. “That game doesn’t justify anything. It’s just a dumb game that was invented by grade-schoolers when they were bored, or something. If someone actually liked someone else, they would actually do something about it. They wouldn’t have it told through some fake game.”

Hinata was amazed that Kageyama was explaining such a thing to him in such detail. He was even more amazed that Kageyama seemed to be trying to cheer him up.

“—and with that…” Kageyama was saying. “…I’m telling you, it’s just a dumb game…but…”

Kageyama was looking at Hinata intensely now. He took a step closer to him, making Hinata flinch in fear. What was he going to do to him? Was he angry? He found that he was glued to the spot and couldn’t run away. Kageyama had that usual scary face on and oh man, he was so dead, so dead, so dead. He didn’t know what he did wrong but he was so dead right now.

Kageyama looked down at Hinata, who was pushed back against the lockers with a fearful look on his face. He brought a hand up to cup his cheek, feeling the shorter one shiver at his touch.

“…but that doesn’t mean the results aren't true.”

Hinata didn’t have a chance to ask what he meant because another set of lips pressed against his own. He flinched at the unexpected contact, but he didn’t pull away. Even if he’d wanted to, the metal behind his head would prevent him from doing so. A moment passed with the two of them very still against one another. Kageyama had one hand around Hinata’s lower back, pulling him closer, and the other flat against the locker.

Hinata decided to give into the overwhelming desire he was feeling and melted into the kiss. Kageyama took this newfound opportunity to delve deeper into the moment. He took his free hand and used it to tilt the shorter boy’s chin up toward his own. He shifted his lips so that they were encasing the other’s lower lip. He sucked on it, slowly, feeling Hinata shift underneath him.

Hinata found that he really liked the feeling of being kissed by Kageyama. He liked the way he held him close. The way that they didn’t have to use words to communicate at this moment. They weren’t arguing for once, and it felt like a nice change.

The kiss only lasted for a minute, but it felt like longer. Kageyama pulled away. Hinata secretly felt upset about it. He’d wanted to kiss a little longer. Then he had an idea.

“Well, um, let’s go then, Hinata.”

Kageyama was walking away toward the stairs as if nothing had just happened. Hinata took a step toward his retreating figure and stopped. He stood firm and resolute.

“Kageyama!”

The brunette stopped and turned around to look at him, revealing a rosy tint on his cheeks. Hinata suddenly felt some of the initial confidence he’d had slip away at the sight of Kageyama’s unconventionally…vulnerable…face. He started fidgeting, nervously. He poked his index fingers together, averting his gaze.

“I think we should…I was thinking that…ya know, maybe we…I want to…”

He mustered up some courage and decided to just force the words out.

“I want to do that again. But this time, at my house. Do you want to…um…do you want to sleep over tonight?”

Kageyama’s eyes widened in surprise. Hinata waved his arms around frantically.

“Y-You don’t have to if you don’t want to. You can just ignore what I said—”

“I’ll be there at seven.”

He turned around again to walk down the stairs. Hinata fist-pumped out of Kageyama’s sight and then ran after him.

“Hey, wait up, Kageyama!”


End file.
